How evaluation has changed the world
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As an evaluator, I’m passionate about making sure evaluation results actually get used. Too many times have I seen evaluations take place as just a tick-box activity or to meet a funding requirement.
Whether it’s by building capacity through the evaluation process or by developing realistic, actionable recommendations, evaluation plays an important part in making a difference on both a small and a grand scale! We see evaluation changing the world by providing direction for program or organizational improvement (e.g., by showing success and failure), demonstrating value and need, and by uncovering credible, reliable knowledge of how change happens to support learning and decision-making.
Through our sister company, Three Hive Consulting, we support healthcare and non-profit organizations to achieve their mission by uncovering insights that drive impact through our three-staged evaluation approach.
Understand: we collaboratively define who needs to know what, when, and how we will collect, analyze, and report on the necessary information
Uncover: guided by the evaluation plan developed in step 1, we collect data to provide answers to the evaluation questions
Utilize: we put the information to work by presenting the data in ways most useful and appropriate for our clients and their audiences
Through these steps, here are just a few ways evaluation has helped change the world.
Human trafficking:
Human trafficking is a serious and complex crime that exploits people of all ages and genders. Data are difficult to report in human trafficking because it is a hidden crime –victims often don’t realize they are being trafficked and/or are afraid to report their traffickers. Despite this, human trafficking is one of the fastest-growing crimes in Canada, and reports are rising in Alberta.
In 2021, Three Hive began an ongoing evaluation to understand the impact of Alberta’s regionalized approach to combat human trafficking and provide support to victims. By comparing the two different models used in Northern and Southern Alberta, the evaluation helped to uncover enablers and barriers, and reviewed the role of the Safety Network Coordinator (SNC) in responding appropriately and promptly to the needs of victims. The evaluation included interviews with team members, pulse surveys with advisory circles and the core project team, and a document review.
The evaluation found that after a year of the SNC being operationalized, 90 victims of human trafficking have been supported. The evaluation work was able to highlight the success of this role while describing critical success factors and areas for improvement. Overall, ensuring that the SNC role continues is an important goal for Northern and Southern Alberta teams. Both teams identified several opportunities to improve supports provided to victims of human trafficking, including mental health supports that specialize in trauma, housing availability with wrap-around services, and making further inroads into rural Alberta.
On October 2, 2022, it was announced that the Alberta government is committing $20.8 million in new funds over the next four years to implement the Alberta Human Trafficking Task Force’s five recommendations to step up the fight against human trafficking.
The funding will:
Establish and implement an Office to Combat Trafficking in Persons and a centre of excellence for research and data collection.
Support a new grant for coordinated community support and Indigenous-led and culturally appropriate services.
Fund civilian positions through the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams whose roles would be focused on supporting victims and survivors throughout the investigation process.
Collaboratively implement other related task force recommendations.
The third point about a “civilian position” indicates that the SNC role will be sustained.
You can read more about this story here!
Communities United
Communities United (CU) was a collaborative, community development initiative in Northeast Edmonton with an overt poverty reduction message. It was a multiyear initiative with a broad mandate, pulling together community stakeholders to collaboratively support and build initiatives and make the most of each partner’s strengths and resources.
In 2019-2020, CU worked with Three Hive on an evaluation report. As a result of a recommendation from a Three Hive evaluation, CU created an impact and lessons learned report, as well as a Theory of Change. These outputs are an attempt to mobilize knowledge and share what was achieved, highlight what was learned, and inspire others to utilize some of the strategies and approaches listed to contribute to the reduction of poverty.
You can read more about this here!
EndPovertyEdmonton
EndPovertyEdmonton (EPE) is a broker organization that brings together existing charities, social services, the private sector, and government agencies to identify how different groups can work together to tackle broader social problems. In 2016, Edmonton City Council approved funding for the launch of EndPovertyEdmonton to steward the vision of eliminating poverty in a generation. To achieve this vision, EPE adopted a modified Collective Impact approach to address the complex challenge of ending poverty and guide how EPE partners work together.
Following on from a previous evaluation by the City of Edmonton in 2018, Three Hive completed an evaluation in 2022 to measure the advancement of EPE on the Collective Impact conditions, as well as equity. The evaluation included a Group member online survey, interviews, focus group discussions, and document review. The evaluation found that EPE has achieved many successes in the past three years and has made progress in some aspects of Collective Impact efforts. However, some issues have persisted such as employees' lack of understanding of EPE’s overall goals and how their work fits in, as well as concerns around governance and leadership. EPE’s long-term systemic goal of ending poverty in a generation is also difficult to measure.
A story about EPE appeared in the online edition of the Edmonton Journal on September 21, 2022, regarding a review of EPE’s funding by the Edmonton City Council. Council increased funding for the agency in the fall of 2021 but withheld $600,000 pending a review set for the end of September 2022. The Edmonton Journal article discusses the 2018 evaluation, as well as the Three Hive evaluation, and how evidence from these evaluations will help to guide the discussion around EPE’s strengths and limitations, and fundamentally help to determine whether withheld funds will be released.
You can read more about this story here!
Do you have an example of how evaluation has helped to change the world? Let us know in the comments!